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MacBook Pro Fragrance Created
First time accepted submitter GreenPages writes "There's a new signature scent for Apple fans — 'the scent of an Apple product being opened for the very first time.' Created for an art exhibition, the special fragrance is not for sale. From the article: 'The scent created with Air Aroma for Greatest Hits encompasses the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, the printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box and, of course, the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory in China.'"
Would that turn people on?
This article is going to spawn about 40 attempts at +1 Funny and another 40 Troll results.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Well, people buy "new car" smell fragrances so I can see people buying this.
I'm sure if there was a way to capture the fragrance of throwing money out of the window, the mac crowd would buy that too.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
Reports say the fragrance smells of Stupidity, BO, and pretentiousness with a subtle hint of desperation.
Does someone wake up and say "I was thinking this morning, how could I smell more like a manufacturing center?"
Seriously, I don't recommend breathing that stuff in.
It smells like farts that are only pleasant to the perfume-wearer...
Benzine and flop sweat...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
But Apple has fragrances .. which are so much more alluring than a smile flavour.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Then the scent of a freshly opened Macbook Pro would be it. I had to open 40 Macbook Pros once and by the end I had a headache from that scent.
I'm serious will Apple shut them down for the name? or Style? or Smell? of the product in question? I didn't seen in the article that this was done in corroperation with Apple. It kind of reminds me of when Harley-Davidson sued Honda over the sound of the engine. http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/articles/content/1998101101.html
Always wondered...
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
And without exception, they all smelled mildly foul out of the box. I'm not the only one who's noticed it.
Even worse were the old iBooks. They had a glue or sealant that started to smell like human body odor after a while.
So it smells of blood, sweat and tears?
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
i wonder if they also include this ingredient called n-hexane (nervegas)
many workers died or got crippeled by cleaning screens of new products
I love the smell of underpayment in the morning!
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
So Microsoft have flavours and Apple have fragrances?
Starting at only $99! Available today in brushed aluminum bottle.
Full prices:
no; only when someone left the iPhone out in the rain
(oblig: "...and it took so long to 'break it")
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The gentle blend of overheating plastic and burned money :)
I kid, I kid... I own a few Macs and love my iSlab and iPhone, but thats the first association that came to mind.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
SMUG
Wow I know apple fans are literally crazy about apple products but this is going 10 steps past to far.
Since this is an art project, the created scent is supposed to evoke something or the other, right? Some kind of intellectual reaction or discussion? It may be a commentary on the ritual of "product unboxing" being taken so far by some people, that they even create "product unboxing videos" on Youtube... It may be a commentary on Apple users being so damn addicted to buying from Apple, that even the "unboxing scent" of the products being opened evokes a sense of "Euphoria" in Apple fans. Since most scents are closely related to fashion (labels), it may be a commentary on Apple's products being so mainstream "fashionable" now, that one might as well create a "fragrance" for Apple, which some people wear like they wear Prada, Hugo Boss or YSL... That last one is probably what they were targeting with this art project. The fact that Apple products have become more "fashion item" than "computer product". And, probably the related fact that many people who buy Apple stuff to be in the "in-crowd", are "fashion-victims" of sorts, who feel compelled to buy that-which-is-fashionable. ---- (Now if only someone made a scent replicating the smell of my latest Samsung laptop being unboxed, then I could become a "fashion-victim" like the Apple geeks, too =)
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
I've been rubbing my Macbook on my wrists for years trying to get that sweet, warm scent of smug that the ladies love.
Great Smell at only Twice the Cost of similar fragrance. Captures the smell and the Apple/MAC experience perfectly!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Sandalwood, musk, essence of hipster, and oil of douche
Now you, too, can smell like a total douche.
...as to make it to the /. main page. Stupid!
Citation is, of course, needed. Macbooks, being made out of the exact same consumer-grade components that every other laptop is made out of, tend to have an expected lifetime of 3-4 years with daily use, again just like every other laptop. Unless we're talking about the type of user who replaces their laptop every year and sells last year's model, which I am not sure I'd really call "frugal", I highly doubt anybody is getting any reasonable dollar value out of reselling old equipment.
Maybe I'm wrong and there is a burgeoning market in secondhand post-warranty laptops that could stop working any day now, but I'm doubtful.
DISCLAIMER: I work in a mixed OSX/Windows/Linux office and run all three operating systems personally.
Funny, I bought an Acer Aspire One in 2008. I gave it to my sister for christmas last year, still working, still useful, with not a scratch on it. Runs Win7 just fine and handled everything I, as a developer, ever threw at it, including running CentOS and OSX in VMs on a Win7 host (it was a tight squeeze in 2GB of RAM, but it did it).
For $239.95 plus tax.
Further, I'm not sure of your definition of "last much longer", but I routinely see PC laptops physically outlast their Mac counterparts. Further to the point, I can go out and get a PC laptop that outspecs the top-end MBP, for less than the top-end MBP, so if you're touting top-end hardware that won't be as obsolete, as fast, I'm sorry, you're wrong there, as well.
In other words, take your smug elsewhere.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I'd love to wear some of this into the local starbucks whilst getting fucked up the ass.
Two things - if everything were the same quality, then even the cheapest Acer or Asus laptop would be the top sellers. Or hell, HP computers for that matter - they'd all last forever. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the case (even though they're all made by the same Foxconn factory in the end). What happens it the manufacturer specifies a quality level - from "just throw the parts in the box and ship it" to "carefully lay out all the cables along the guides in the case so the case can be opened fully with the wires routed to the side pivoting..." sort of quality. (Anyone's who had to deal with OEM machines with too-short cables in the case requiring unplugging every part to replace the RAM can attest).
Anyhow, it seems Macs have long useful lives - my old Powerbook (!) dates to 2003 and is still in use today - probably a good 10 years of service out of what I paid. And most people find that's the case - machines that are 6+ years old (the early Intel Macs, for example) are still useful. The eBay prices for used Macs tends to attest to that - still considerably higher than a PC of equivalent age. Sure my Mac will probably never fetch more than $200 or so, but a 10 year old PC getting $200 is pretty unheard of unless it's special in some way - and most people would scoff if you tried to get more than $20 for it.
That's just the Mac market. I guess it also helps that the metal casing generally tends to be of good quality so the worst damage a Mac usually has is missing rubber feet and scratches. PCs having lots of little plastic bits all over the place will have pieces falling off.
The other thing Apple does is concentrate on experience. Apple packages stuff really well compared to a lot of other manufacturers and it shows. The paper's not some recycled crap that's covering your new device in little bits of paper dust when you open the box, it doesn't look like someone randomly took all the pieces and thrown it in the box and be done with it or have the nasty folded cardboard packaging cut with some strange wavy saw that saws through your hand as you extract it out (it seems the Japanese love it - Sony and Panasonic packaging...).
Not to say there isn't well-packaged stuff (Nintendo's DSi and later handhelds are pretty good compared to the DS series and prior). My Gnex came in a nice box with well laid out accessories. Then again, there's some Datel stuff I got in a nice box, but held in a nasty cheap cardboard holder that covered my "shiny" new product in a fine brown dust. Bleh.
(C) (R) (patent pending) etc. 2012.
So that explains why Samsung put out a job posting for an aroma analyst.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Woz never had the reality distortion effect that affected people the way that Jobs did, but he did have a different kind of cult hero effect.
Back in the late '70s and early '80s, Woz was probably more highly regarded by Apple users than Jobs was. Of course, those were the days of 'hobby' computers and that group made up a large portion of Apple II users.
Woz created good hardware that simplified and reduced the cost of many components. He was also interested in bringing computing to the masses, but didn't dumb it down. Woz had a lifelong love of education and he really pushed creating an informed and educated user base.
His attitude was a key part of Apple's early success. They produced documentation that enabled users to learn and enhance their systems and to promote a good level of code quality.
There were many heros from the home-brew era of computers, and Woz was one of the top heros.
The only "scent" I've noticed is paper and a faint bit of what I would assume is adhesive that finished drying during shipment. I assumed Apple tried to keep smells down, since I've inhaled far worse after opening other electronics packages (motherboards come to mind). I've never thought of any sort of characteristic "Mac smell"...though admittedly I don't hold my nose up to the packaging and inhale deeply. This is nothing but a gimmick IMHO.
Oh, and the obligatory.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Another PC troll who has no idea what the f they are talking about. Your disclaimer is BS!!!
2GB of RAM to run a VM on top of the OS, Yeah the VM booted, but then nothing else would run. $240 of cheap plastic crap that is using a processor that probably came out 3 years before the laptop.
I run all three OSes as well, but I still prefer a Mac to any other computer (whether it be the Mac OS, Win7 or Linux). Like anything else in life you get what you pay for. Can I get a cheaper PC and hack it to run OSX? Yes. Would I want to? No. Does the Mac have a premium price over a comparable PC? Yes, absolutely. But not as much as the trolls would have you believe. And while the Apple does outdate its OSes on older machines, this is to move the platform forward so it is not beholden to old hardware. Just ask Microsoft, they are heading in the same direction.
I don't understand why Apple gets so much crap fro putting a premium on quality. This happens with cars, with watches, with beer and so many other things. Just because YOU don't want to pay for it, doesn't mean it isn't right for the people who appreciate quality. So why don't you take your piece of crap Acer, get in your Yugo (The Acer equivalent to a car) and go troll somewhere else.
wrong spot, my bad
Two things - if everything were the same quality, then even the cheapest Acer or Asus laptop would be the top sellers. Or hell, HP computers for that matter - they'd all last forever. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the case (even though they're all made by the same Foxconn factory in the end). What happens it the manufacturer specifies a quality level - from "just throw the parts in the box and ship it" to "carefully lay out all the cables along the guides in the case so the case can be opened fully with the wires routed to the side pivoting..." sort of quality. (Anyone's who had to deal with OEM machines with too-short cables in the case requiring unplugging every part to replace the RAM can attest).
This begs the obvious question: do Apple products actually "last forever"? Also, are the problems you mention descriptive of every single non-Mac laptop available? The Mac has to be better than all available competitors who sell at much lower price points to truly negate the claim that buying one is equivalent to throwing money out the window. And, most importantly of all, what do the problems you've listed have to do with longevity? Chassis damage aside, the parts that are going to likely break and brick your computer are really not subject to build quality instructions from Apple, Dell, or Asus. Seagate doesn't reserve the "special" hard drives for Apple, nor does Intel provide better processors, etc. The only plausible thing I can think of that would relate would be cooling, and that's not even an area where Apple laptops do well.
Anyhow, it seems Macs have long useful lives - my old Powerbook (!) dates to 2003 and is still in use today - probably a good 10 years of service out of what I paid. And most people find that's the case - machines that are 6+ years old (the early Intel Macs, for example) are still useful.
Anecdotal evidence. I've known Macbook Pro users whose machines totaled themselves after 2-3 years. I've seen Dell laptops last a decade, as well. The standard deviation of laptop lifetime is really huge, especially if you can't account for use patterns, so a few data points aren't going to help you figure out much of anything about reliability.
The eBay prices for used Macs tends to attest to that - still considerably higher than a PC of equivalent age.Sure my Mac will probably never fetch more than $200 or so, but a 10 year old PC getting $200 is pretty unheard of unless it's special in some way - and most people would scoff if you tried to get more than $20 for it.
I call shenanigans. There are lots of people attempting to sell Macs on Ebay for inflated prices, but if you dig down and find the devices that actually have bids on them, even
That's just the Mac market. I guess it also helps that the metal casing generally tends to be of good quality so the worst damage a Mac usually has is missing rubber feet and scratches. PCs having lots of little plastic bits all over the place will have pieces falling off.
Another broad generalization. My non-Apple laptop also has a metal casing. You usually do when you get high build quality on expensive laptops. Comparing $2000+ Apple laptops with bottom end
The other thing Apple does is concentrate on experience. Apple packages stuff really well compared to a lot of other manufacturers and it shows. The paper's not some recycled crap that's covering your new device in little bits of paper dust when you open the box, it doesn't look like someone randomly took all the pieces and thrown it in the box and be done with it or have the nasty folded cardboard packaging cut with some strange wavy saw that saws through your hand as you extract it out (it seems the Japanese love it - Sony and Panasonic packaging...).
How exactly does this have anything to do with resale value? You just felt like taking the opportunity to wax poetic over the cardboard box your laptop was shipped in? You know, that thing that matters for all of 10 minutes aft
It is called The Smell of Other Peoples' Money.
Looks like slashdot nommed part of my reply.
I call shenanigans. There are lots of people attempting to sell Macs on Ebay for inflated prices, but if you dig down and find the devices that actually have bids on them, even less than 5 years old, drop under $200 unless they have expensive software installed on them like Photoshop. And that's already not nearly enough to cover the Apple premium paid on the original purchase price for the hardware.
Also...
Comparing $2000+ Apple laptops with bottom end sub $800 PC laptops isn't reasonable.
I buy a new MacBook about once a year or as often as the updated hardware warrants it. I've done this for a long time and usually get about 50% of the original price when I sell the old one. My old laptop is usually sold within hours. I'm sure I could get more if I wanted to put some effort into it.
Chinese slave labor sweat and tears in the morning.
That is all...
... a small hint of semen and faeces?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
How can I be the first to post that likely name for the scent?
The CB App. What's your 20?
I don't understand why Apple gets so much crap fro putting a premium on quality.
Again, the big glaring question is whether you are actually getting quality, or if you are just paying a premium. This isn't a discussion of a Lamborghini versus a Kia. We're talking about devices that have the exact same innards made by the same cheap Chinese companies that fill up an equivalent Dell or HP. And frequently, there are issues with the chassis itself, the only piece that Apple does have anything to do with. I haven't met an Apple power cord in the past decade that wasn't a cheap piece of junk, and the Macbook Pro line loves to have heating problems because air ventilation was sacrificed for visual appeal.
Eau de Burnt thighs
Eau de Burnt Lap
Eau de male infertility
I have a few "smells" that I could make available at a reasonable price...
File this story under "WTF"
Two things - if everything were the same quality, then even the cheapest Acer or Asus laptop would be the top sellers. Or hell, HP computers for that matter - they'd all last forever.
I guess it depends on your definition of quality. Consumer Reports surveyed their reads about laptop reliability a few issues back and the results surprised me. Macs did fair better in that they had fewer problems. But the gap was 1% point between Macs and almost all other laptop makers. I did some googling but couldn't find this year's results but this article citing CR actually lists Apple as worse than Asus or Toshiba by 2% for 2011.
Going off the top of my head, I seem to remember the respondents were > 30K in number. And I didn't read more into how they defined "problems" but there you go.
And to match your anecdote with mine, I handed down my 8 y.o. Compaq laptop to my parents and they're still using it daily to surf the web and do email
Eau du Cancer, for sure.
I have just about reached the 3 year mark on my MacBook Pro, and it continues to perform admirably despite the drops and dings and general abuse it has received. I've had windows and linux laptops get cranky or fail with less abuse. The money I spent was well spent. I have not had to upgrade or replace anything. The processing power continues to be sufficient for my needs, so I would be buying a new one in order to give this one to the kids as their school projects are getting more computer oriented, not because I need a faster laptop.
Details inside!!!
That's hardly the definition of "frugal" I think most of us subscribe to, but okay.
Reportedly, the fragrance smells like old burnt coffee. As though it had been fresh once, but neglected by it's barista. Java anyone?
I remember back in the nineties when you'd order PC parts from Computer Shopper or the like to build a new PC and you had a whole room full of PC parts, there was a very distinct smell. You don't get that so much anymore since it seems like only hardcore folks build PCs these days instead of buying them. I wish someone made an air freshener that had that smell so I could hang it in my car.
Apple does provide better quality. They don't (any more) make plastic cases. Yes they do have the same processors and chipsets as other PCs, but they are not using the low end crap and the stuff that is years past its prime. You can get a PC with the same hardware inside, but then the price difference is much less once you configure the machines as close as possible. So at that point, the difference comes down to the OS itself. Since I can't (legally) run the Mac OS on a generic PC, this all becomes moot.
Lamborghini vs Kia is not fair. How about a BMW vs VW (not trying to start a car fight, just trying to use a more apt comparison). Will both get you where you need to go, yes. One just does it in style.
Not sure where your going with the power cords. They had some issues with fraying with the first gen of magnetic adapters (I've only seen 2 in my entire company have this problem, and these had more to do with abuse). But Apple will replace any of these you bring to the Apple store. The new ones are problem free. And for the record, if you've ever seen a Dell power brick (and I mean brick), then there shouldn't be any comparison. If you have ever tripped over a laptop chord only to see the laptop go flying, you greatly appreciate these chords.
The MPBs haven't had a heat issue since they were first introduced (I had a first gen, they were hot, but not as bad as everyone made it out to be). This problem had more to do with the materials of choice (aluminum) and the processors of the time.
So at the end of the day, is it worth it to me to pay a couple hundred dollars more for what I feel a superior machine and OS, yes.
And for the record, a MBP smells awesome when they are first opened.
Actually to be honest the "new computer" smell like the new car smell isn't exactly good for your health. It's made up of a lot of toxic chemicals. I'm suprised no one's pointed this out . It's like having a "car exhaust" smell. Not really appealing if you ask me. ;)
We've all smelt that fresh unboxing of a new product now and then. From tennis balls (pass out in a non-stop sniffing stupor on those), shoes, electronics, to stepping into a brand new car. But of all the memories of unboxing, opening up my SNES for the first time was the most impressionable. Nothing, and I mean nothing had the smell of excitement like a brand-freaking-new SNES console with Super Mario included. Ok, so maybe sex tops that.
Life is not for the lazy.
read this, it is from 07, but it is still applicable.
http://www.salon.com/2007/11/07/mac_price/singleton/
Macs have a higher resell value over equal Windows/generic PCs (yes I know "PC" means personal computer, get over it, the world calls windows boxes PCs). It is partly because of the higher starting point, but it is also about demand. Not as many people want used PCs (ok maybe they do, but there are tons more of them).
People covet Macs. I don't know of many people that feel this for PCs (again I know).
Yeah I'm a fanboy, but I except it. It is not because I follow Apple blindly. I used PCs (I know) for years (going back to 1990). I switched when OSX can out and I've never looked back. I still use Windows and Linux, but I will always prefer a Mac (It is nice that I can run all 3 OSes on one box to boot).
What the trolls need to realize is that PCs are commodities and Macs are not.
I think there may be a difference in the type of problems Mac users typically have vs. what other users have, but that's just speculation.
What isn't speculation is that if you have a problem with your Mac, you can take it to an Apple store and they will fix it right there while you wait (if they can - obviously not everything can be fixed in-store quickly), for free. I recently took my 3-year-old Macbook Pro in because the touchpad stopped working, and they fixed it for free even though it was two years past the warranty expired (it turns out I could have fixed it myself, but I didn't have the right screwdriver for their security screws... but that's a different discussion, and the point is that I didn't have to do it myself and neither do people who aren't experienced techies).
What do you do if your Asus or Toshiba has a problem? I honestly don't know, but I guarantee it's not as convenient and is probably quite unpleasant.
Apple has an obvious advantage because they have retail stores and are able to offer that service, but, there's really nothing stopping the other manufacturers from doing the same thing (except the fact that they care more about profit margins than customer service). I'd think it'd be a huge boon for the other manufacturers if they decided to get together and install non-douchey customer service and repair people at certain retail stores across the country (e.g. they'd take the place of Geek Squad at Best Buy, or at Radio Shack or some other nationwide chain) to provide a similar service. Or maybe an expansion of the Microsoft Store nationwide - I've been in the one at Costa Mesa and it seems like they could provide similar things that the Apple Store does.
You do realize that the reason your mac can run all 3 and your PC can't is because apple forbids it, don't you?
what I have found, time after time, is that people who are not technically inclined prefer the Mac. That's fine by me, that is exactly the crowd apple can get more money for the same thing from.
I will admit, they appear to be higher quality - but as a commodity, it's like buying a titanium shovel, who the fuck cares? Throw any common task at them, photoshop, premeire, blender, and for the same price the PC runs circles around them al biet with a less attractive mouse. who gives a fuck except the self worshipers?
My disclaimer is, indeed, factual. I run a CentOS 6.2 host with OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.8 in one VM and Windows 7 Ultimate in another.
I'd be shit for a web developer if I did not test on all three platforms, as well as Android, Blackberry, and iOS, and my employer has standardized on using Coda, an OSX application, for development.
How often does a troll come back wit ha valid reference for his setup? You'll also note that I talk about this setup in several other posts in several other threads.
Apple's kit is far from premium quality, 2 of the 3 iMacs in my office go unused and my boss can't keep his MacBook Pro connected to a wireless network for more than a couple hours at a time. It was purchased in mid-2010 and replaced last December with a new machine, both with the same issue across multiple networks in multiple locations. I have never experienced this with a PC, none of our iMacs do this (well, the workong one doesn't, the other two didn't) and my wife's MacBook Pro has no issues staying connected to any network. I'm not saying Apple kit is crap, it's decent stuff, but premium quality it is not; the same person doesn't get two lemons in a row from a manufacturer of premium goods.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
The MPBs haven't had a heat issue since they were first introduced
I have a wife and a boss who would both love to hear you say that to their faces.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Dell will do NBD on-site computer repairs. I don't know if that's strictly better or worse (you have to wait until tomorrow but they will come to you) but it is at least in the right ballpark. I don't know how other manufacturers stack up in that regard exactly, but Apple doesn't have a monopoly on fast, local service.
caution: may cause boner